HTC 8X Windows Phone 8: Review

| Permalink


HTX 8x windows phone 8

Summary of the HTC 8X Sim Free Smartphone:
  • Excellent camera – innovative ultra-wide-angle rear and front cameras
  • Ergonomic build – the most comfortable mobile that will ever sit in your palm
  • Inbuilt audio processor for Beats Audio –  HD, uncompressed audio for all uses
  • Tough, light, scratch-resistant 4.3 inch Liquid Crystal Display screen, made from Gorilla glass
  • Windows Phone 8 operating system and a 1.5 GHz, Dualcore processor

Camera

On how many occasions have you dreamed of taking a photo of your friends and you in front of a beautiful place, when the picture just captures a part of you and none of the landscape? Or, your friends aren’t in the snap, either. Fit more friends in the photo, including yourself! Now, you can very simply fit loads of people in the picture with an innovative eighty-eight degree ultra-wide-angle camera that ‘sees’ nearly three times the area of similar cameras on other phones.

You can also capture a split-second scene forever as you are able to enter the camera even through the lock screen! This is pretty useful, as it has a dedicated camera physical button.

Also, a special chip makes sure you capture the very crisp, lifelike photographs. The phone has an excellent f/2.0 lens, making photos in low-light the best they can possibly be, so the photos you take will be good-looking even in relatively dark conditions, such as dimly lighted rooms, or at sundown.

Display

Images appear wonderfully—even in bright light or at obscure viewing angles; on the gorilla glass screen lifelike colour representation and sharp contrast. The display also is resistant to normal wear and tear so you don’t have to worry about many scratches, and you can be in the comfort that it will last a long time.

Sound

This phone includes a special processor built in to it, so it outputs more high-quality sound to your earphones than most other phones. In addition, this is the first time that Beats audio is being bundled witth a Windows Phone 8. Take that mix and revolutionize your listening experience with deeper bass, clearer lyrics and high quality high sounds for games and other types of media.

Speed

These days data is flowing all the time and information is non-stop. A feature called’Live Tiles’ alllows you to you organize your home screen exactly how you would like it and makes it easier to take in all the things that are happening with the friends and family in your life in an instant. You are able to make a Live Tile for any person and nearly anything, and put it on your home screen. If you pin a person or an application you know what their latest status is without delay, just by looking at your phone. Change the size of, reorganize and recolour them to easily access what is most important to you.

What are people saying?

“Well worth the wait. Powerful, fast, slick operating system.” 5/5 Stars (Click here to see full review)

“To its credit, Windows Phone 8 is an entirely different experience than an Apple handset” (From TechHive)

Souce of product description and reviews: Amazon.co.uk

Tags: ,

Samsung Galaxy Y smartphone: The best mobile to buy for low budgets?

| Permalink

samsung galaxy y 12 month contract phone reviewThe Samsung Galaxy Y smartphone gives you a full smartphone featureset, optimized if you have a low budget.  Nevertheless, don’t be worried by the affordability of this phone, it still has a very useful selection of functionality and features for people who want to enjoy the smartphone experience for less.

You can personalize multiple home screens, choose favorite shortcuts and have the smartphone experience that is best for you through the Galaxy Y’s three inch touchscreen. The phone runs Android 2.3 with the beautiful overlay of Samsung’s TouchWiz user experience, creating a harmonious, enjoyable and powerful interface. Navigation and the discovery of all the functionality and possibilities of the Galaxy Y are made even simpler with functions such as an inbuilt accelerometer and support for multiple fingers to be recognized on the screen simultaneously.  Mix this with the 300,000 apps you can get from the  Android market, and social network integration, such as Twitter and Facebook and you can understand why the affordable Galaxy Y is so popular!

Internet on the go also covered, as it is more crucial than ever, with fast 3G and Wi Fi functionality. The Samsung Galaxy Y can be customized with five colored clip on back plates so you can alter it depending on how you’re feeling! Finally,  the Galaxy Y succeeds in packing a worthy 832MHz processor, GPS plus you can extend the storage of the phone up to 32 gigabytes, as a crowning stroke.

What are people saying?

-”The best and easiest phone i have ever had, I am in my late 60s and had no problems using it” (Click here to see full review)

-”I bought this mobile knowing it wasn’t exactly top of the range, but for the money it seems to be a decent buy”  (Click here to see full review)

Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Note: this is the sim-free version on the phone, which I recommend if you’re buying the Simplicity O2 sim only contract, or if you want another sim-only 12 month contract. You will have to get this phone unlocked at your local phone shop to use it with other networks, but I actually quite like O2.

Souce of product description and reviews: Amazon.co.uk

Tags: , ,

Blackberry Bold 9900: the best mobile to buy for business users and teens?

| Permalink


blackberry bold 9900Summary of features:

  • 1.2 GHz processor and 8GB of extendible memory
  • Sleek, high-quality, and pakced with the best tools, the thinnest, best-looking BlackBerry yet
  • BlackBerry 7 OS user interface
  • Communicate and interact better than ever with the intuitive touchscreen
  • Instant access to location services such as the attractions and amenities around you

The BlackBerry Bold 9900
is the slimmest and most capable BlackBerry ever. Building on the well-known design and user friendliness of the Bold series, this 9900 is cutting edge, combining an extremely easy-to-use QWERTY physical keyboard with a high resolution multitouch 2.8″ touchscreen which can play back HD (720p) videos.

The classic BlackBerry frame is now manufactued from stainless steel, special glass and high-quality plastic, so it now has the best-ever 10.9mm body. You can also find a 1.2GHz processor, which has 2 cores, and 768 megabytes of RAM, a five-megapixel camera, as well as BlackBerry 7, the most recent version of Research In Motion’s operating system which includes performance improvements that make use of the phone’s power to offer a fluid and polished user experience plus highly speedy touch-based navigating, game-playing, video-watching and the most useful internet experience to be found on any mobile.

What are people saying?

-”The web browser is snappy and responsive, the touchscreen is easy to use, fluid and a delight” (Click here to see full review)

-”Everything about this handset is top quality apart from one thing. The battery.”  (Click here to see full review)
Overall rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars.

Note: this is the sim-free version on the phone, which I recommend if you’re buying the Simplicity O2 sim only contract, or if you want another sim-only 12 month contract.

Souce of product description and reviews: Amazon.co.uk

Tags: , ,

Sim only contract options

| Permalink

Sim only contract card

Photo by DeclanTM

With a sim only contract, you are free to keep your current phone (if you’re happy with it), and you only pay for the network services (texts, minutes and data). You are also free to use any mobile of your choice, have a look at our buyers’ guides.They also have the benefit of being 30 day ‘rolling’, in most cases, which means you can cancel them at any time. This is a bit like pay-as-you-go, but it means you can save extra on texts, minutes, and data.

The cheapest sim only contract is about £10, and all of the major networks offer such deals (O2, Three, etc.). For example on a Three sim only contract, you can get 200 minutes, 5000 texts (!) and 500MB of data for under £10 a month. You don’t need or get a new phone, but some people may be happy with their current phone.

Also, one thing that can be very useful is if you use a lot of internet on your mobile. A sim only contract with unlimited internet can be very cheap – about £10 from GiffGaff. They allow you to watch as many videos, send as many emails or visit as many webpages as you want on the move, and this is one thing that cannot be found with conventional contracts (or at least it is a lot more expensive). With the advent of video streaming on the move, many networks want to limit the amount of data that their customers can use, so some networks do not offer sim only contracts with unlimited internet, but if they do it can be found for a lot cheaper than with usual contracts.

If, at any point, you are unhappy with your sim only contract, if it is 30-days rolling, then this means that you only pay for a month at a time, so you are not obliged to pay every month for a year or two; you can cancel whenever. This can be especially useful in today’s world where you are bombarded with seemingly-better deals from left, right and centre. So, you can always switch contracts if it is 30-days rolling to one that you think is better value.

Where, then, do you look for sim-only contracts? Nearly all of the big networks offer them, and to see them all in one place then visit a site like Carphone Warehouse or search for sim free contracts. If you’re worried about whether you need a standard sim, micro sim or nano sim, then search for your phone on the internet, or simply pop into your local mobile phone store and ask.

Tags: ,

Best mobile phones for any type of contract

| Permalink

Mobile Phone picture

The process of selecting a contract for your phone is usually only half the story. Most people start off by selecting the mobile phone itself and then look for what contracts are available. Indeed, that is what we all do here at 12MonthContractPhones.com, so we are adding a new page which will collate all the future blog posts about reviews of the phones. These phones will be best for sim-only contract options, or 12 month contracts which allow you to choose your own phone. We think that this will be the best option for anyone who’s looking for a new mobile phone or smartphone as you should always start with the selection of the phone you want, the contract should come later, and there are many contracts out there that allow you to choose your own phone.

I hope you will find our reviews useful, and please don’t forget to keep checking back for more useful guides.

Find out about contract phones with free gifts

| Permalink

This is another great advantage of buying a contract phone, as you cannot find free gifts on other phone options. The types of free gifts vary, but you can get laptops, tablets, games consoles (such as the Nintendo Wii or PlayStation 3), cameras and more – just shop around for contract phones with free gifts!

Contract mobile phones with free gifts give you this tech, and allow you to pay for it over time in your mobile phone contract. Of course, these gifts are not ‘free’, you pay for them by paying slightly more each month for your contract, but this can still be very useful. What we have found in our research is that, typically, the networks do not offer these gifts through their own contracts, but stores such as Phones 4U and the A picture of some of the gifts, such as TVs, games consoles and laptops, that you can get with mobile phone contracts.Carphone Warehouse add free gifts with contract phones, on some deals, so it is best looking on these websites or popping into your local store.

If you’re looking for free contract phones with free gifts, then you may have to pay quite a lot per month, as you have to pay both for the phone and the gift along with the contract per month. You may even end up paying way more than the value of the phone and the gift, so make sure you do your calculations first. Contract phones with free gifts are often used as a marketing technique to entice you to buy the contract – so you must be careful not to get ripped-off. Here’s how to calculate how much you’re paying and if it’s worth it:

Monthly price * length of contract = total price of contract

Look up the price of the phone, sim-free (that means not on a contract) on Amazon, and the price of the gift. If the price of both of these is a lot less than what you’re paying, in total, for the contract, then steer clear!

In conclusion, if you happen to need both a new mobile phone and, say, a games console, TV, laptop, camera or another ‘free gift’, then you should definitely look into this option, as you will be able to pay for both of these gadgets over many months and not pay much upfront. However, you must be really careful to make sure you’re not overpaying for this tech, as often you could save money (even though you have to pay upfront), by avoiding contract phones with free gifts and buying the ‘gift’ for yourself instead. You can still get some great tech with your phone though!

Tags: , ,

Guide to 12 month contract phones

| Permalink

Often, contract mobile phones can offer better value than pay-as-you-go deals, if you are a regular mobile user. You can also get things such as free gifts, a cheaper phone price and an unlimited data (internet) allowance on contract. Many people agree that 12 month contract phones are the best contract options, but do you want to know more about them and where to find them?

With year-long contracts, you can easily upgrade your mobile in a year, after the contract runs out, and not be stuck with the same phone whilst your friends have the latest iPhone. Following on from this, you can of course find most of the latest smartphones (and phones for all other budgets, too) amongst the 12 month contract phones. Nevertheless, most networks prefer to offer more expensive phones on longer contracts, such as 18 months, so it may be a little more difficult to find a new phone on a 12 month contract. That’s not to say you shouldn’t shop around, and you will find phones that are great for people on a smaller budget – some great little Android phones can be found, too!

What’s another advantage of 12 month contract phones? Well, there are many contracts offered by all the different network operators (O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Three, etc.), so you are sure to find a deal that is right for you. You may want many minutes (for voice calls), or thousands of texts, or loads of data, or even a combination of these! As such, you get better value than pay-as-you-go offers as a mobile phones 12 month contract is more secure for the network as they do not rely on payments at random times when you use your mobile. This is great if you use your phone regularly – you can save money!

Third, are you shocked at the price of the latest phones? A contract can help you pay for it over time, like a credit agreement. For example, you could get a Samsung Galaxy S III Android smartphone for free on some contracts. However, this is an issue with 12 month contract phones, as the shorter the contract is, the more expensive the phone cost will be. This is where 18 month contract phones could be better, if you want to pay less up front.

Ok, are you convinced by 12 month contract mobile phones? How do you get one? Usually, sites such as Carphone Warehouse will give you an option only to show contracts of a certain length, which makes it super-easy to find what you want. Alternatively, it is very easy to walk into your local phone store and ask for 12 month contracts. You could also go to the networks’ websites themselves, and they have a similar contract length filter feature. This may bag you a better deal, as the networks may put better offers on their websites than shown on Carphone Warehouse or contract comparison sites.

Please regularly check this website for more help and guides like this : ).

Tags: